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Regents to make choice Thursday

Posted: Wednesday, December 07, 2005

ATLANTA - The new head of Georgia's network of colleges and universities will be named Thursday, the University System Board of Regents said Tuesday.

A spokeswoman for the board said the regents would begin a closed-door meeting at 10 a.m. to select the successor for Chancellor Tom Meredith, who left earlier this year for a similar position in Mississippi.

The regents gave no indication of who might get the job among the three finalists: Wisconsin businessman Erroll Davis, chairman of Alliant Energy Corp.; Daniel Papp, the university system's senior vice president for academic and fiscal affairs; and David Smith, chancellor of Texas Tech University.

It wasn't known whether the new chancellor would attend the meeting, said the spokeswoman, Arlethia Perry-Johnson. She said some of the logistical details still were being worked out.

A news conference to introduce the selection is scheduled to take place after the meeting ends.

The board set the stage for the final vote during a meeting Tuesday. Regents were slated to discuss the results of visits to the three finalists in their home states, though the Tuesday meeting was largely closed to the public.

Before the board voted to go into a closed session, regents Chairman Timothy Shelnut insisted regents were on schedule, though some had speculated that a chancellor was to be named as early as Monday.

"As you know, we're close to culminating our search for the next chancellor of the university system," Shelnut said near the beginning of the hour-long meeting.

Regents launched the search in August after Meredith announced he was leaving, capping off months of rumored tension between the chancellor and Gov. Sonny Perdue. A new twist in the search emerged last week, when several media outlets reported that Perdue had met with the three candidates or was scheduled to do so.

However, the regents have maintained that Perdue wouldn't influence their decision.

Since Meredith left, Interim Chancellor Corlis Cummings has run the university system. She is expected to stay in the interim position at least long enough to help the new chancellor take the helm.